The gender gap in reading is three times bigger than the gender gap in math¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr1·q2
Currency · newest study 2016 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2021: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? The gender gap in reading is three times bigger than the gender gap in math, according to OECD figures cited by the article. → Pascal Pansu 2016
Evidence¶
Pascal Pansu 2016¶
Pascal Pansu, Isabelle Régner, Sylvain Max, Pascale Colé, John B. Nezlek, Pascal Huguet. (2016). A burden for the boys: Evidence of stereotype threat in boys' reading performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 65, pp.26-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.02.008
q2 · i? · causal · r1
The article cites OECD (2014) figures for this comparison; it is a second-hand statistic reported as motivation, not a finding the article itself analyzed. No effect size is printed.
"This is surprising as the gender gap in reading is three times bigger than the gender gap in math (OECD, 2014)."
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Gender — predictor: outcomes differ by group: a gap reflecting circumstances and treatment, not a cause
Related Claims¶
- Across nations, boys outperform girls in mathematics by a small average margin while girls outperform boys in reading by a margin three times larger — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
- Sex differences in mathematics and reading are strongly and inversely correlated across nations in all four PISA assessments — related
- The inverse relation between mathematics and reading sex differences also holds within nations across the performance continuum — related
- Stereotype threat reverses the gender gap in third-grade reading: boys underperform girls under threat but outperform them under reduced threat — related
- National gender-equality and human-development indicators show no consistent correlation with sex differences in mathematics or reading across the decade — related
- Female kindergarteners outscore males in math and reading at entry; the reading gap was stable while the small math gap narrowed slightly — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
reading-gender-gap-three-times-math-gap |
title |
The gender gap in reading is three times bigger than the gender gap in math |
description |
The gender gap in reading is three times bigger than the gender gap in math |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2016 |
recheck_by |
2021 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-17 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — pascal-pansu-2016 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.